REGULAR PRESS BRIEFING BY THE INFORMATION SERVICE

Corinne Momal-Vanian, Director of the United Nations Information Service in Geneva, chaired the briefing which was also attended by Spokespersons for the Human Rights Council, the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, the Economic Commission on Europe, the United Nations Children’s Fund, the International Organization for Migration, the World Trade Organization and the International Labour Organization.

Secretary-General’s travels

Ms. Momal-Vanian said that the United Nations Secretary-General was to leave on a visit to Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and South Korea where he would participate in a nuclear safety summit in Seoul. The Director-General of the United Nations Office at Geneva was to accompany him in attending this meeting.

Sahel / Mali

Ms. Momal-Vanian said the number of people displaced by conflict in Mali continued to grow and was now approaching 195,000, nearly 100,000 outside of the country (mainly in Mauritania, Burkina Faso and Niger). Given the evolving situation in the country, the government and humanitarian partners had decided to take the figure of 120,000 IDPs as a basis for planning assistance in the next six months, while also taking into account a more pessimistic scenario of 200,000 internally displaced, she said. The humanitarian response of UN agencies was still, however, hampered by security constraints in the field.

She also gave details of a Central Emergency Response Fund allocation of $2.6 million for programmes of integrated response to the food and nutrition crisis in Mali given to UNICEF on March 9. It follows other payments of $2,640,000 granted on March 6 to the World Food Programme for assistance to people affected by drought. She noted that areas where the fighting took place and displacement was seen did partially overlap those affected by the food crisis. However, funding of $800,000 granted on March 9 to the Food and Agriculture Organization for emergency restoration of livestock and agricultural productivity of vulnerable households was limited to the Kayes region, spared by the conflict.

Marixie Mercado for the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) warned there was little time left to stave off a disaster facing more than a million children aged below five in the Sahel region of Africa. The dry, 'lean' season in the eight affected countries was imminent, she said, and for UNICEF this will be marked by rising numbers of children in feeding centres who will need lifesaving treatment.

Even in a best case scenario it was expected that more than a million children suffering from severe and acute malnutrition were to enter feeding centres over the next six months and more extreme conditions could see the number rise to around 1.5 million. So far the agency had received $24 million dollars against an emergency appeal of $119 million dollars for 2012, or a fifth of the funding required.

Early warning plans were issued on this issue months ago, she added, and comprehensive plans were in place for each of the affected countries. That said, with the funds received so far it had only been possible to stock ready to use therapeutic food to meet needs until the end of June, though the lean season would last until the end of August or longer. Funds were therefore urgently needed for other critical elements in the response such as cholera kits, water purification tablets, jerry cans and antibiotics.

Answering questions she said malnutrition was already an underlying factor in a third of all child deaths in the region, but the peak of the crisis was expected as the lean season, which was just beginning, started to take its toll. A number of warnings on this had been issued since December.

Human Rights Council

Rolando Gomez for the Human Rights Council said further Universal Periodic Review reports were to be considered and adopted today. These included Lithuania, Uganda, Timor-Leste, Republic of Moldova, Haiti, Antigua and Barbuda. Following the adoption of these the United Nations would have adopted reports from all 193 Member States, he said, which would bring the end of the first cycle. The second cycle was to begin on 21 May, when States would come back to report on what concrete steps they have been taken to implement the recommendations made during their first review.

He also mentioned that many draft resolutions were being received, with 29 received in the last 48 hours. These were to then be considered by the Council during the closing days of the session on the 22 and 23 of March. Others were expected to be tabled on Libya, Yemen and Syria over the course of the day.

Brazil

Rupert Colville for the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) said prosecutors in Brazil had announced that they would bring criminal charges against a retired army colonel, Sebastião Curió, for the disappearance of five individuals during the military dictatorship in the country between 1964 and 1985. This was the first time that Brazil was prosecuting human rights violations committed during that period as previous attempts had been blocked by interpretations of the 1979 amnesty law.

The Office of the High Commissioner welcomed the prosecution of the retired colonel as a first and crucial step in fighting the impunity that surrounds the period of military rule in Brazil, he said. Curió would be charged with aggravated kidnapping in relation to the disappearance of five members of the Araguaia guerrilla movement who were detained in 1974 though the charges must still be approved by a judge before the case can go to trial.

He explained that this was a long-awaited development towards accountability for the hundreds of people who disappeared during the 21-year dictatorship and who remained unaccounted for and his office was hopeful that the Brazilian judiciary would uphold the fundamental rights of the victims to truth and justice by allowing this very important criminal prosecution to go forward.

Answering questions he said that in this case, prosecutors argued that disappearances were not covered by the amnesty law, given that the victims’ bodies had not been found, and so amounted to continuous violations under international human rights law. Under international law there should never be an amnesty for serious international crimes.

He added that in November 2011, the High Commissioner welcomed the creation of a Truth Commission to investigate human rights abuses committed during military rule, while encouraging Brazil to take measures to facilitate prosecutions and abrogate the amnesty law.

In general, there was a positive trend in the region towards justice for crimes against humanity committed during military regimes, he said. For example, Guatemala recently announced it would try a former military ruler and just this week sentenced a former special forces soldier to prison on charges of murder and crimes against humanity committed in 1982. Uruguay had overturned a de facto amnesty law and Argentina had handed down hundreds of rulings to perpetrators of gross human rights violations.

Haiti

Christopher Lowenstein-Lom for the International Organization for Migration said the Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF) had allocated $1 million from its "underfunded emergency" reserve to IOM water, sanitation and hygiene projects to combat waterborne diseases at the start of Haiti's wet season.

Nearly half a million very poor Haitians still live in the sprawling tent camps where they fled immediately after the earthquake two years ago, he explained, and public health conditions are typically dire and the onset of the rains brings with it the spread of preventable, waterborne diseases, including cholera. The money will also support camp water committees responsible for ensuring the availability of potable water and provision of oral rehydration solution in the event of a cholera outbreak. It will also pay for latrine maintenance and repairs to prevent contamination of the water supply.

In addition, the programme will promote lifesaving hygiene and behaviour change among some 60,000 camp residents to prevent a resurgence of cholera. Haiti's first cholera outbreak began in October 2010, eight months after the earthquake. It had resulted in close to half a million cases nationwide and around 7,000 deaths.

Mexico

Christopher Lowenstein-Lom for the International Organization for Migration (IOM) said IOM had launched a mass information campaign targeting the some 400,000 irregular migrants from Central America that transit through Mexico each year on their journey north to the United States by crossing from Guatemala.

Backed by the Government of the Mexican State of Chiapas, the Provincial Goverment of San Marcos in Guatemala, Central American countries and Ecuador, together with civil society organizations, the campaign aims to raise public awareness and provide information on the dangers associated with irregular migration in this highly volatile migration corridor, he said. In particular those making the journey were seen as increasingly at risk of murder, extortion, kidnapping and a variety of other dangers.

In Mexico, the campaign will be disseminated in migrant shelters around the country, in consular offices in the city of Arriaga, and aired by local radio stations.



Geneva activities

Ms. Momal-Vanian said the Conference on Disarmament held its next public meeting Tuesday and from next week, the chair would be taken by Ethiopia. Ethiopia would remain at the helm until the end of the first part of the session in two weeks time, she said, and also during the first two weeks of the second part of the session, beginning May 14.

Finally, the Joint United Nations – Arab League Special Envoy on Syria was to hold a stake out in the Palais des Nations today at 16:00, following his briefing to the Security Council by video-conference.

On Tuesday (20 March) at 9.45 in Press Room 1, the United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Reduction launches "Disaster Risk Reduction: Spending where it should count" which examines the inadequacy of funding for disaster risk reduction in international aid. Speakers included the United Nations Secretary-General's Special Representative on Disaster Risk Reduction.

Jean Rodriguez for the Economic Commission on Europe (ECE) said the new ECE Executive Secretary, Mr. Sven Alkalaj of Bosnia and Herzegovina would take up his post in mid April (exact date still to be confirmed).

Following the tragic coach crash involving Belgian schoolchildren he also spoke of security in tunnels, saying the ECE had worked on safety and security measures following a previous spate of problems, including the deadly fire in the Mont Blanc tunnel, and these were adopted in 2001. These recommendations, which had formed the basis of the Directive adopted by the European Union in 2004, were available on the ECE website. Answering questions, he said that Switzerland had implemented these recommendations.

He also spoke of a meeting of the Implementation Committee under the
Convention on Environmental Impact Assessment in a Transboundary Context next week which would consider two submissions by Parties regarding other Parties' compliance with the Convention. These would be by Azerbaijan regarding Armenia and by Lithuania regarding Belarus, including hearings of these Parties.

Meanwhile, he said today was the 20th anniversary of the Convention on the Protection and Use of Transboundary Watercourses and International Lakes (adopted in Helsinki, Finland on 17 March 1992), the only international framework agreement in force on transboundary freshwater.

Ankai Xu for the World Trade Organization (WTO) announced the following meetings: Tuesday (20 March) at 10:00 Philippines: trade policy review (and Thursday) as well as a Technical Barriers to Trade Committee (to Thursday) at the same time. The Regional Trade Agreements Committee (to Wednesday) was also at 10:00. On Wednesday (21 March) the Agriculture Committee met at 10:00, while on Thursday (22 March) the Agriculture negotiations committee “special session” took place at 15:00. On Friday (23 March) the Dispute Settlement Body met at 10:00, followed by a briefing, of which details would follow.

She added that on Monday (19 March) the WTO Director-General was in Singapore to meet the Prime Minister and the Minister for Trade and Industry. He was to then give a speech on "Has the crisis killed multilateralism?" at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy and meet with the Dean.

Jean-Luc Martinage for the International Labour Organization (ILO) said the 313th session of the ILO Governing Body started yesterday, and would run until 30 March. The programme was available on the internet, and discussions would centre on the application of norms and around preparations for the Rio+20 conference. The Council was to also follow-up on the implementation of the ILO-G20 training strategy, on preparations for the next International Labour Conference in June and, finally on 30 and 31 March the list of candidates nominated to take the post of Director-General. The ballot for the election would be held on 28 May, he said.